Irish Examiner view: State's BoI share sale not such a bad thing

Paschal Donohoe, the finance minister, will no doubt be criticised for the decision to sell off part of the State's shareholding in Bank of Ireland. Picture: RollingNews.ie

There is little doubt that Paschal Donohoe will come in for a fair bit of criticism for the decision to sell off part of the State’s 13.9% shareholding in Bank of Ireland over the next six months. This marks the first sale of some of the Government’s holdings in the country’s banks since 2017.

However, it must be remembered that, of all the banks bailed out by the taxpayer, Bank of Ireland represented the best value for money. The bank was rescued to the tune of €4.7bn, but returned €6bn to the exchequer.